Gates' Cascade Investments LLC and Alwaleed offered $82 a share in cash, Four Seasons said Monday in a statement. Sharp, who would remain chairman and CEO of the Toronto-based company, would receive $288 million from the deal.

The transaction "is the only one I am prepared to pursue," said Sharp, who opened the first Four Seasons hotel in 1961 in Toronto.

Four Seasons owned The Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle until it was sold in 2003 to Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc. Early this year, a group of investors, which included Alwaleed, bought the Fairmont chain for $3.3 billion.

Hotel companies have become takeover targets as real estate prices in the world's largest cities rise and the cost of new construction soars.

In Seattle, news of the sale was greeted enthusiastically by developers of the Four Seasons Seattle, a hotel-condominium project on the corner of First Avenue and Union Street.

"Four Seasons has always been close to our hearts in Seattle, and now we will have an even stronger connection with Bill Gates as one of the company's primary owners," John Oppenheimer, managing director of Seattle Hotel Group LLC, developer of Four Seasons Seattle, said in a statement.

Gates and Alwaleed have collaborated in the past. After attending a dinner at Gates' Bellevue home in early 2004, Alwaleed agreed to explore ways to assist Microsoft's expansion in Saudi Arabia, according to a report from the Saudi state SPA news agency archived on Saudinf.com.

Sharp's family will keep a 10 percent stake in the company through special voting shares, while Gates and Alwaleed will split the remainder, Four Seasons said.

Gates' Cascade Investment has made energy investments, including a joint venture this month with PNM Resources Inc., a New Mexico utility owner. It is also the biggest shareholder in Canadian National Railway Co., the country's largest railway.

The Four Seasons deal conforms to Alwaleed's interest in recognizable hotel brands, said Amit Kapoor, a hotel analyst with Gabelli & Co.